


Doomsday

by darthvair65



Series: Forces of Nature [4]
Category: Percy Jackson and the Olympians & Related Fandoms - All Media Types, Percy Jackson and the Olympians - Rick Riordan
Genre: Blood, Break Up, Developing Friendships, Developing Relationship, Fist Fights, Future Fic, Gen, M/M, Violence
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-12-28
Updated: 2013-12-28
Packaged: 2018-01-06 10:49:22
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,954
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1105915
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/darthvair65/pseuds/darthvair65
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>When Nico decides it's time to leave Camp Half-Blood for good, Percy decides to confront him. It's a very bad idea.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Doomsday

**Author's Note:**

> 1\. Applied Theories  
> 2\. Blood Price  
> 3\. *Doomsday*  
> 4.  
> 5.  
> 6.  
> 7.  
> 8.  
> 9.  
> 10.  
> 11\. Forces of Nature  
> Epilogue

The days following the battle with Gaea are long and exhausting. There was so much to do, so many friends and lovers to mourn for, that there never seemed to be a moment’s rest to simply be.

Percy was dealing with a totally different kind of emotional stress, though; following the debacle with the giants’ army and his desire to choke them all to death, Annabeth had become distant in all aspects of the word. She’d tried at first, but Percy had grown frustrated with the way she flinched away from his touch, especially when all he really wanted was comfort amongst all the loss. The words “you’re scaring me” grated on him until he could no longer bear to hear them. When he expressed that frustration, tears welled in Annabeth’s eyes and she shook her head, muttering a quiet, broken _I’m so sorry, Percy_ before backing out the door. Apparently his little display had terrified some of the other campers, so they were also keeping their distance. The only person who seemed to have a neutral opinion on his presence was Nico.

He’d asked Nico if he was scared of him like he knew the others were, and the son of Hades had burst into laughter. “I know I can take you in a fight if you go crazy,” he’d said in explanation. Percy had stared, shocked by the statement because he’d never really thought of Nico as being more powerful than him, despite all the things they’d seen.

Then again, the feeling of his bones compressing together under the grip of Nico’s hand and the weight of his overwhelming power had been intense and frightening. Perhaps he was.

Percy felt like he was suddenly much more aware of Nico’s presence and voice now that he was one of the few that would voluntarily talk to Percy; he realized that Nico was taller and stronger now, built from wiry muscles and thin but steely bones and words flung from his mouth that cut Percy like a knife.

Still, Nico had been the one to remind him of his humanity at a time when he was in danger of losing sight of that completely. That was not something he was likely to forget anytime soon, and a debt he would be hard pressed to pay.

He learned very quickly that Nico was going to control their social interactions: when Percy first approached Nico, the son of Hades seemed to shut down for the most part, but sometimes he would approach Percy on his own, and sit and talk with him quietly. It was always on his terms rather than Percy’s.

Percy did his best to give Nico the space he needed, and over the course of the week following Gaea’s defeat they developed something Percy wanted to call friendship; mostly though it was just Nico grudgingly allowing him into his vicinity and talking with him. Nico became his lifeline, the sole comfort Percy had to keep him from flying off the deep end again. He tried to recapture the feeling of warmth he remembered washing over him that horrible day, but Nico refused to show that again; he was guarded, and was almost too careful to keep his emotions from coming through.

His nightmares stopped; Percy felt calmer within that week than he had in a while, enough that he could hold a strained conversation with Annabeth, if only for her to tell him she was going to Camp Jupiter for a couple weeks because she needed the space. He was proud of himself, that he held it together for the most part after she left, though inside he was screaming. Even Jason was talking to him again, though later Percy wished Jason had continued to steer clear of him, in a way. Late in the week, Jason let slip that Nico was preparing to leave – for good this time.

Percy had blanched when Jason first said it, his heart pounding in his chest and his mind spinning as he tried to come to terms with that information. Why? And how could he leave now? A thick, cloying fear took over in his chest – he’d already lost most of his friends and his girlfriend, and now he was going to lose the one person who didn’t flinch at the sound of his voice, who didn’t look at him with a mixture of fear and disgust?

He stalked away from Jason shortly after that, and he could hear the son of Jupiter cursing under his breath as he headed straight for the Hades cabin. He’d only been inside the building twice, and both times in the last few weeks; before that – and if he was honest with himself he _still_ this felt this way – he felt like it was a violation of Nico’s privacy and stepping over the boundaries of their unstable friendship to enter his cabin. He pushed those thoughts out of his mind and bounded up the rough, obsidian steps to pound on the door.

A moment later, Nico shouted back sullenly, “Go away, Percy.”

Percy tore the door open anyway.

It was dark inside, as it always seemed to be, though lit with cold green lanterns at intervals on the walls. To the left, Nico’s bed was made and had clearly not been slept in. His Stygian iron sword was propped up against the end of the bed, along with a small duffel bag stuffed with clothes. That sight alone made Percy’s blood boil.

Then Nico came around a corner at the back of the cabin, hastily pulling a shirt down over his pale torso. He looked positively livid. “What the fuck, Percy? Are you deaf now?”

Percy felt like he’d been slapped and punched in the gut simultaneously. “You’re leaving,” he stated, the words falling flat in the space between them.

“I am,” Nico shrugged, putting his hands on his hips. “I can’t stay any longer.”

“Why?” Percy choked. “Is it – is it something I did?”

Nico blanched staring at him blankly, his mouth moving like he wanted to answer but thought better of it.

“I have to go, Percy. I just – I have to. That’s all you need to know,” he muttered dismissively, looking down and turning away.

“Can you just . . . please, tell me.”

“It’s none of your business!”

“It is if it’s me,” Percy hissed.

Nico’s gaze snapped to him, an unreadable expression on his face. “And what will you do if I say it is?”

All the breath left Percy’s lungs. “I apologize. For everything. All my failings, I know there are a lot. Just – please don’t leave.”

“Why do you suddenly care whether I go or not?”

That cut like a knife. “You’re my friend. My, uh, my only friend. I don’t want to be the reason you leave. I’d hate myself even more than I do already.”

Nico didn’t answer. He turned away and grabbed his leather coat from a pile, ignoring Percy’s prompting for a response as he got walked around his cabin with purpose in his step. Each time Percy said his name he grew more and more desperate, until he totally lost patience and charged. Nico didn’t even have time to protest before he pushed him up against the cabin wall, caging Nico in, much to his outrage.

“What the fuck, get off me!” Nico snarled, shoving at Percy’s chest.

“Please – listen!” Percy pleaded with him, but he was cut off by Nico’s fist to his chin.

“Fuck off,” he fumed, pushing Percy away. “You don’t get a say in this.”

Percy touched the infant bruise on his jaw. “Do you want me to grovel, Nico?” he roared. “To beg you for forgiveness for failing you, for failing Bianca? For not being able to protect and help you when you needed it?” Nico visibly shut down the second Percy mentioned his late sister, so when Percy pushed forward again Nico mindlessly mirrored his movements until his back hit the wall again.

Electricity and tension crackled between them as Percy leaned down to try and meet his gaze, but Nico would not budge.

“Or do you hate me that much? Am I that repulsive?”

In hindsight, Percy should have known that he was asking to get his ass kicked. If he hadn’t been so blindingly desperate, he might’ve seen the cold rage building in Nico’s eyes, the uncontrollable fury threatening to boil over like a volcanic eruption.

But he didn’t; Percy was so frustrated that he couldn’t see it – he didn’t expect Nico’s body to totally tense up and his gaze to snap up to Percy’s with deep, dark hatred and rage.

As he crashed through the stone wall of the Hades cabin and hid the ground hard enough that his teeth clacked together, all he could think was that he should have seen this coming. He rolled with the inertia for several seconds until he slammed into a boulder, which knocked the breath right out of him. Campers screamed, and Percy cracked his eyes open again just in time to feel the air compress around him, like he was feeling the effects of being deep in the Mariana Trench – but instead of water, it was the shadows making the air feel heavy and cold. Then Nico stepped out from the hole created by Percy’s body, radiating a deep darkness that made his heart beat like a rabbit’s in the presence of a predator.

Percy felt an ache deep in his bones, like he was being crushed by an invisible force into the dirt, then suddenly the hold broke; he stared at Nico with wide eyes as the younger demigod gasped for breath, looking pale and drawn.

Percy staggered to his feet, groaning as he catalogued his minor injuries. He should have kept his mouth shut, too.

“Is that all you’ve got?” he growled, and in the distance he heard Jason shout for the other campers to take shelter from the oncoming storm, followed by Nico’s name.

What happened next was technically categorized as a natural disaster. The ground cracked beneath Percy’s feet; the river surged through the forest at his bidding, while Nico pulled granite from the earth and heaved it at him. Atlantic waves pounded the beach as if it were being hit by a tsunami, and much of the area around Long Island felt significant tremors as it responded to Nico’s unstable emotions.

It was doomed to end badly. Percy badly underestimated Nico; he underestimated his ferocity, his willingness to pummel Percy relentlessly into the ground. And he was, apparently, more than willing.

A rock struck him in the temple, and Percy’s vision went black – only for a few seconds, but long enough for Nico to straddle and pin him down, the shreds of Percy’s orange shirt clutched tight in his shaking fist. Percy had about two seconds to process the fact that Nico looked horribly pained by this before Nico’s fist crashed into his cheek and nose. Percy’s head flung back, and Nico retracted his fist before repeating the action again . . . and again . . . Percy felt the first three, but after that it was pain and cracking bones.

“I left,” Nico spat, voice ragged with pain and fury, “because of _you_. And I’m going to leave now because of _you_ and nothing else.” He shoved Percy to the ground in a groaning heap and climbed off before stalking away, cradling bloody and probably broken knuckles. Percy gasped and tasted blood in his throat as he coughed, and then all he could feel was excruciating pain in his chest – broken clavicle, he noted. Suddenly Jason entered his fuzzy vision, looking nervous.

“You idiot,” he heard Jason mutter, before everything went black again.


End file.
